Detail: A famous bearer of this name is Desiderius Erasmus, a Dutch philosopher.

Saint Erasmus once fled to Mount Lebanon during the Christian persecution of Diocletian and lived a life of solitude there for some time, being fed by a raven. After the emperor discovered his whereabouts, he was tortured and thrown in prison. Legend records that when a blue light appeared at mastheads before and after a storm, the sailors took it as a sign of Erasmus’s protection. This was known as “St. Elmo’s fire” (the glow accompanying the brushlike discharges of atmospheric electricity that appears as a tip of light on the masks of ships during stormy weather).